As serendipity would have it, our fourth So, Do It! Salon happened on International Women’s Day. I could not think of a better place to be for that occasion. It also occurred on the day after students all over the U.S. respectfully walked out to honor those who died in the terrible school shootings and to speak out bravely for change.

To me, that set the tone for a day of awakening and letting our voices out with courage. On a smaller but very meaningful scale that is what happened in our salon session. I saw it over and over again in what the women in our group brought to the table.

One of our members discovered that the practice of sitting down and writing consistently makes her feel better and more empowered as a person. She is now committed to this practice.

Another member is now willing to sell her screenplay and relinquish some of the control she was holding onto to allow the important message of the story to get out to the world.

And yet another member found her voice against an investor who sounded promising at the start but really did not have her best interests at heart.

All of these changes are acts of courage, but the person who impressed me the most was our salon sister who told us she almost did not come that day. That morning she found herself in a negative place in her thoughts and felt she really didn’t achieve much in the interim week. But, instead of surrendering to those thoughts and feelings she did show up, and as we talked she found she really had made progress toward her IT.

One of the core foundations of the So, Do It! Salons is that they are a safe place with no judgment. It was a pleasure to see that principle in action with our group. I wish anyone reading this the power of courage, the inspiration of awakening and the freedom of getting your voice out to the world.